Selection Day: A Novel Summary
Aravind Adiga

Selection Day: A Novel Overview

Selection Day is a novel set in Mumbai, India around present day. The central character is Manjunath “Manju” Kumar, the younger of two brothers in an impoverished family living in a Mumbai slum. His brother Radha is older by about one year, and their father Mohan is training them both to be professional cricket players. The story follows the Kumars as well as a handful of supporting characters as Manju and Radha train for selection day, which is when they try out for professional cricket teams. The story begins about three years before selection day, when Manju is 13 years old and Radha is 14, and continues through the week after selection day. The novel then jumps ahead 11 years to demonstrate the characters’ long-term fates. As teenagers, Manju and Radha’s cricket aspirations are threatened and complicated by various internal and external obstacles, including family dysfunction, lack of talent, lack of desire, and other factors. The novel ultimately condemns Mohan Kumar’s abuse and manipulation of his sons, and none of the characters experience very happy endings, but the novel still provides a complex, sympathetic, and even humorous portrait of the story’s events.